Disneyland AND Arizona

For months and months, I had been planning a trip to California to meet up with my cousin and her family for a Disneyland vacation.  We had missed out on going together a couple of other times throughout the year and I really wanted to make this one work, especially since my cousin Rachel would be there after getting home from her mission to Paraguay.  As the time got closer, we realized Jason wouldn't have the time off work which left me going by myself with Leila.  As much as I love my daughter, 11 hours in the car by myself with her was not going to cut it.  So, I convinced my mom to come with us!

Then the disastrous month of February hit and I wasn't sure we were going to make it after all.  But my mom knew how much it meant to me so we decided to go ahead and go.  And I'm glad we did!  There were some hard times and some painful memories, but we were also making new memories and being comforted by family.

We drove down Tuesday in my mom's suburban and I was thoroughly impressed by how well Leila did.  She didn't sleep much but at least she wasn't super cranky the entire trip (Elmo helped a lot too--thank goodness for technology)!  We drove to Oceanside first so that I could drop Leila off with her Grandma and Grandpa Ziebarth for the night.  They were kind enough to watch her all of the next day so that I could have a baby-free day in Disneyland.

We finally made it to our hotel late and exhausted only to start unpacking and realize that our room had not been serviced.  The bed was unmade and there was trash everywhere.  Thankfully they got us into another room pretty quickly because we were both ready to crash!

The next morning we were a little slow getting going until we got a phone call from Alicia.  Their car wouldn't start and they were stranded at their hotel!  So, we kicked it into high gear to go a pick them up only to get stuck in traffic on the freeway.  What should have taken us 15 minutes took us an hour.  We just thought we were all going to make it to Disney in time for opening.  Geez!  We finally made it to pick them up, loaded up all her girls and made it to the park.  The weather was gorgeous all day.  A little brisk in the morning and at night, but no rain like we'd have later on in the week.

Welcome "Home "Rachel!

One of my mom's favorite rides

A Nap in a Can

Carsland at Night

Worn out at the end of Day 1

Ziebarths drove up and dropped Leila off that night and I have rarely seen her so exhausted.  Apparently she hadn't slept well for them the previous night (no surprise, she doesn't usually sleep well when she's not in her own crib) and she was determined to make up her sleep.  She'd fallen asleep in the car and didn't even budge when I took her out, carried her up to the hotel room, laid her on the bed, set up her portacrib and then transferred her back.  And then she slept all night long!  I'm glad she did cuz I needed the sleep too since I was starting to feel a cold coming on.

We decided not to take advantage of magic morning and just sleep in a little instead.  Once we made it to the park, my mom dropped Leila and I off and she went and parked.  I met up with the crew in Disneyland and ended up making a swap: Leila for all of their park passes.  My mom and I then went to DCA and waited in the fastpass line for Radiator Spring Racers.  Perkins/Sorensens hadn't seen Carsland before this trip so we wanted to make sure we'd be able to ride as a group at least once (well, two groups since we had kids that couldn't ride).

The girls all dressed in their Disney dresses I'd made them even though it was a little chilly.  We had Winnie the Pooh, Jessie from Toy Story, Snow White, and Minnie Mouse.  We also made sure to take advantage of my mom's Disney Visa photo-op and got a picture with the whole clan and Minnie!

Best Buddies

I had my arm around "Jason" for this ride.  Scary thing is there is actually a shadow there!

The whole motley crew

Wusses!

Leila had a really rough night that night and Friday dawned cold and dreary.  We opted to get to the park a little later in hopes that Leila would be able to sleep a little more and be in a better mood.  That didn't happen.  Poor girls was probably feeling as crappy as I would be feeling the next day but had no way of communicating it other than being a pill.  She wouldn't sit still, wouldn't eat much of anything, and was incredibly whiny most of the day.  The rain we experienced off and on throughout the day didn't ease my stress levels at all.  We lasted until after dinner when I decided to just be done and try to get her back to the hotel and to bed.

This was right when we made it to the park in the morning and Leila had already fallen back to sleep...should have known it would be a long day! 

The only coaster we got Hailey and Aubrey on...they didn't much care for it

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E (with binky cuz it was that kind of day)

My little squirmy worm!

Of course, sleep was not to be had again that night.  Thankfully, we had decided to drive to Arizona (5 hour drive) for Rachel's homecoming talk instead of making the long drive home that day.  We took our time getting going in the morning and slowly made our way to Arizona.  At this point, my head was completely stuffed up and Leila was still being a pill.  Fun times.

So glad we made the effort though!  Rachel gave a great talk that both my mom and I needed to hear.  She even talked a bit about her experience hearing about my dad (he passed away just 2 weeks before the end of her mission).

Leila loved having other little girls around

Group Shot

Wearing our Hawaiian dresses

She LOVED sitting in this little chair!

Leila turned a corner that afternoon and by the next morning she was back to her happy, high-energy self.  What a relief!  It made the drive home so much nicer!